An allegation that you have committed plagiarism, cheated on a test, forged documents, or committed another act of academic misconduct in Louisiana is a serious matter. The hearing that will determine if you were guilty or innocent of the claims against you, unfortunately, is often terribly equipped to make an accurate conclusion. Innocent students are found to have committed academic misconduct all the time in Louisiana, making them pay for something that they did not do.
Utilizing your right to appeal from a bad outcome at the hearing is critical if you want to preserve your professional future. Hiring academic appeals advisor Joseph D. Lento can be the best way to make sure your case is reheard at the appellate level.
Your Right to Appeal a Misconduct Hearing's Decision
An essential part of the academic misconduct investigation process is your right to appeal your case to a higher hearing body if something went wrong at the initial hearing. However, schools and colleges in Louisiana also want an efficient process that resolves as many cases as possible with one hearing. Therefore, most colleges have put important procedural barriers in front of aggrieved students before they can have their case reheard.
A favorite procedural blockade is to require all cases to fall into one of a small handful of categories that are appealable. Common appealable cases involve those that involved bias or unfairness during the initial hearing or those that have changed since the initial decision because of newly discovered evidence.
Getting your appeal into one of these categories can be difficult. Worse, many schools require a strong showing that proves your situation falls into one of these types of cases before the appellate body will even consider your claims. Finally, squeezing your case into one of these categories in order to make it appealable can make your arguments weaker or even irrelevant to your appeal, dooming your appeal's chances of success by ensuring it gets heard, at all.
Why Your Right to Appeal is so Important
Your right to appeal an adverse outcome at the misconduct hearing is critical because these hearing panels are extremely prone to making devastating mistakes. Many schools in Louisiana seem more intent on ensuring there is a diverse panel to hear a case – putting faculty members, administrators, and even students on the panel – then they are at finding good judges. The predictable outcome is that hearing panels fall for emotional arguments over hard evidence very frequently, and often fail to differentiate between claims that are credible and those that are very tenuously supported by evidence.
Joseph D. Lento: An Academic Appeal Advisor for Louisiana Students
If you go to school in Louisiana and have been accused of academic misconduct and been found in violation of your college's code of academic integrity at the hearing, utilizing your right to appeal the outcome can save your professional future. Hiring Joseph D. Lento, a student discipline defense lawyer and academic appeal advisor, can be the best investment you make in your career. Call him at (888) 535-3686 or contact him online.
- Acadiana Technical College Lafayette Campus
- Baton Rouge College
- Baton Rouge Community College
- Blue Cliff College Alexandria
- Blue Cliff College Houma
- Blue Cliff College Metairie
- Blue Cliff College Shreveport
- Bossier Parish Community College
- Capital Area Technical College Baton Rouge Campus
- Career Technical College Shreveport
- Centenary College of Louisiana
- Central Louisiana Technical College Alexandria Campus
- Court Reporting Institute of Louisiana
- Delgado Community College
- Delta School of Business and Technology
- Dillard University
- Grambling State University
- Herzing University Kenner
- ITT Technical Institute Baton Rouge
- ITT Technical Institute Saint Rose
- L E Fletcher Technical Community College
- Louisiana College
- Louisiana Delta Community College Monroe Campus
- Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
- Louisiana State University Eunice
- Louisiana State University Alexandria
- Louisiana State University Shreveport
- Louisiana Tech University
- Loyola University New Orleans
- McCann School of Business & Technology Monroe
- McNeese State University
- Medvance Institute Baton Rouge
- Nicholls State University
- Northeast Louisiana Technical College Delta Ouachita Campus
- Northshore Technical Community College
- Northwest Louisiana Technical College
- Northwestern State University of Louisiana
- Nunez Community College
- Our Lady of Holy Cross College
- Our Lady of the Lake College
- Remington College Baton Rouge Campus
- Remington College Lafayette Campus
- Remington College Shreveport Campus
- River Parishes Community College
- Saint Joseph Seminary College
- South Central Louisiana Technical College Young Memorial Campus
- South Louisiana Community College
- Southeastern Louisiana University
- Southern University and A & M College
- Southern University at New Orleans
- Southern University at Shreveport
- Sowela Technical Community College
- Tulane University of Louisiana
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette
- University of Louisiana Monroe
- University of New Orleans
- University of Phoenix Baton Rouge
- University of Phoenix Lafayette
- University of Phoenix Louisiana Campus
- University of Phoenix Shreveport Bossier
- Virginia College
- Xavier University of Louisiana
Regrettably, an academic misconduct finding of responsibility can derail an accused student's academic and professional goals and some students and parents do not recognize this concern until it may be too late. If a student is found responsible for academic misconduct charges, in addition to the short-term consequences such academic and disciplinary sanctions, there will be long-term consequences. Internships, graduate school opportunities, and employment opportunities can all be adversely impacted by a finding of responsibility.
For these reasons and more, it is critical to properly address such concerns as early as possible in the disciplinary process. There are times, however, that it necessary to appeal an adverse outcome, and Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm have unparalleled experience passionately fighting for the futures of his clients at universities and colleges in Louisiana and throughout the nation. He does not settle for the easiest outcome, and instead prioritizes his clients' needs and well-being. Joseph Lento is a licensed attorney in New Jersey and New York, is admitted as an attorney pro hac vice in state and federal court if needed when representing clients nationwide, and serves as an academic misconduct advisor to students facing disciplinary cases in Louisiana and throughout the nation. Make certain your or your student's interests are protected at all stages of the academic misconduct disciplinary process, including the appeal stage - Contact National Academic Misconduct Advisor Joseph D. Lento today at 888-535-3686.
